[Tetraman]

Ok...I know its off topic of the "FLR", but 174 finally has a robotics team within a short drive of them - It's team 4071. (look at that, an alteration of the number 0174) They are located in the city of Syracuse, about a 15 minute drive from us, this year going to the NYC regional, and 174 hasn't made any real formal contact with them.

Now the thing is, getting FIRST teams in the Syracuse area has been a huge hassle for us. For one, over the years of being discouraged that area schools don't want to host FIRST teams due to money and resources are pooled to other competitions, our lead mentors have given up attempting to start teams and replicate what you all have done in Rochester to turn Syracuse into another hub of FIRST in NY. And to see another team on the horizon is the best news I've heard in forever. It's just that 174 has barely had any official visits/talks with 4071 due to the last team that started in the area only lasted a year and many of us have become pessimistic on the idea that other FIRST teams will be created and stay in SYR.

If you would like to do some sort of "FLR collab", I would like to formally propose an initial massive project. I'm not a person who can start new teams other than making a great presentation to persuade these SYR area schools to follow the Diatonic Carbonites into trying the FIRST program. Fortunately, there isn't a lack of area support for FIRST - 174 is given decent chunks of money every year from businesses that "tried to start a team, but didn't get it started in time". I know it's my fault that I haven't gotten 174 to the State Fair shows (I mean we are a 20 minute drive to the fairgrounds), I just haven't been around all the time and within the ROC area enough to know how all of you in ROC are doing things.

So, if anyone in ROC who knows how to build FIRST teams from the ground up, would like to help me and a few others to do a little seed-sowing and build up some teams in SYR, we could expand FLR's teams who attend. Imagine if we get to the point where we need two fields at FLR in different parts of RIT. (And also the Carrier Dome at SU would be a great place for the NY State Championship when that happens, so having a SYR FIRST hub would help make that happen.)

This is sorta the result of frustrations from some other FIRST mentors and some 174 alumni that we wish for SYR to be as big a place for FIRST as Rochester someday, but we just can't ever start it up. And if we had help from some ROC peoples, we could be a collab of two cities, rather than a "rivalry" of cities.

Just a thought. Thanks for listening.